The Ogallala aquifer is one of the world’s largest underground bodies of water, and many ecosystems and communities in the American West depend upon it – however the aquifer is in rapid decline due to over-exploitation of its resources. According to the Denver Post, farmers in eight American states(Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming and South Dakota) are putting strain on the aquifer by overdrawing water from beneath the soil they cultivate in a $35 billion dollar per year industry. If allowed to continue, this could threaten both the livelihood of farmers and the ecosystems of the West, which could be replaced by a ‘Great American Desert.’
Because of the region’s intensive farming practices, agricultural wells are extracting water from the Ogallala aquifer significantly faster than it is being replenished. This trend appears to have accelerated in recent years. Federal data indicates that the aquifer contracted twice as fast in the past six years as it had in the previous sixty, with a significant impact on everyday water use in the West. “Now I never know, from one minute to the next, when I turn on a faucet or hydrant, whether there will be water or not,” said Lois Scott, who lives on a family farm in Cope, Colorado, in an interview with the Denver Post. “The aquifer is being depleted. This will truly become the Great American Desert.”
Related: Dead Sea salt reveals drought on a scale never recorded – and it could happen again
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
